Whooping Cranes

Operation Migration is a wonderful program I have been following for years that is attempting to reintroduce endangered Whooping Cranes back into the eastern United States.

Eggs are incubated, hatched and raised completely by people dressed up as adult birds. The birds could be released into the wild but would not migrate without any parents to teach them to do so. This program attempts to teach them to migrate.

They use an ultralight airplane and train the birds to follow it.They start in Wisconsin and head to central Florida for the winter. The journey is a lengthy one. They are currently in Winnebago, IL.

I noticed that this year they are taking a more westerly route which would have them come almost right over our property. I sent an email inviting them to stopover here if they needed to. We have over 11 acres and would certainly welcome the birds and the crew for as long as they needed to stay. I got quite a surprise when I got an answer back asking for our actual address so they could check out our location and terrain. What a treat it would be if they were to stop here!

I will check our GPS tomorrow and get our latitude and longitude coordinates. It would certainly be exciting.

This a teriffic program and a very interesting website. Check out the photographs of the beautiful Whooping Cranes in flight.